This may look beautiful, but it’s not. This is the red sludge left in the reservoir in Ajka, 164 km southwest of Budapest, Hungary, after the reservoir wall broke and flooded several Hungarian villages with toxic red sludge waste from an aluminum plant. This ecological disaster is unparalleled. It certainly begs the question of why this toxic sludge was allowed to exist in an open reservoir in the first place, poisoning the environment, animals and birds, an accident just waiting to happen.

October is breast cancer awareness month. Few people are unaffected by breast cancer. Eveyone knows someone who is a survivor or a victim. Awareness is a woman’s first defense – both awareness of the disease and of her own body and what is normal.

This tree stands in the lobby of the Comprehensive Breast Center, located in a pink house at the intersection of Clark and Hogback roads in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

By adding a ribbon or card to this tree, you can celebrate victory, send a prayer for someone fighting the disease or honor a survivor or a victim. Indeed, this a very special tree and stands year round.

Don’t be a willing victim – do your self-checks and get regular mamograms. Don’t wish you had when it’s too late!

My quest for a Featherweight like Bonnie’s brought me to this lovely little gem. Not only is it pink – but it couldn’t be for a better cause. The man who creates these few select pink machines donates part of the proceeds to breast cancer research in honor of his sister who succumbed to the disease.

So if you’re going to purchase a Featherweight, please consider a pink one. You can see more about these machines, this project, and purchase this one right here:

Gold Handcuffs, Miami’s Mondrian South Beach Hotel

Hotel gift shops—so passé. At this chic South Beach hotel, one full wall of the lobby is taken up by the Semi-Automatic, an enticingly mod, pink-purple vending machine. Some to-go items: a feather vest ($400), a $28 T-shirt emblazoned with the word recession, or, better yet, the 24-karat-gold handcuffs ($350). You can even buy a nearby condo, or rent a 1953 Cadillac DeVille convertible.

Price: Ranges from $10 to $1.2 million. For the super-high-end items—say, buying a car or condo—you pay a deposit, which you lose if you later opt out. I so want to know how much of what has been sold.